Israeli strike on school prompts global anger
An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians that killed at least 93 people in the Gaza Strip has deepened global scrutiny of Israel’s conduct of the war more than 10 months into its campaign to eliminate Hamas.
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said the al-Taba’een school in Gaza City was housing about 6000 displaced Palestinians when the bombs struck around 4.30am.
Video from the scene showed scores of bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets laid in the schoolyard, as women crouched over corpses in grief. The strike was one of the single deadliest bombings of the war, and Bassal said the toll was expected to rise.
The Israel Defence Forces said the strike targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants it claimed were operating a command and control node from within the school, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields.
An Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with IDF protocol, said that three precision munitions struck a prayer hall, which he said was used by militants, on the ground floor of the three-story school building. The strike came at a delicate moment for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is already under pressure to end a conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead.
The site of Saturday’s bombing in Gaza City, and the scale of the bloodshed, brought a swift international response.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, expressed concern about the strike and said it had asked for more information.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy of Britain, another key Israeli ally, said he was “appalled” by the incident. “Hamas must stop endangering civilians. Israel must comply with international humanitarian law,” he wrote on social media.
France decried the targeting of Gaza schools and what its Foreign Ministry called Saturday’s “intolerable” death toll.
The governments of Qatar, Egypt and other Arab nations meanwhile responded with outrage. “This is an indication that the Israeli government seeks to thwart and frustrate [cease-fire] efforts,” Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said.
Several eyewitnesses described a terrifying series of events during the strike, which occurred in morning darkness.
The windows of Amjad al-Sheikh’s nearby home shattered. “My body flew through the air from the force of the explosion,” he said.
Sheikh, 32, and two of his brothers used the light from their phones “to track the voices of the wounded, including children and women asking for help to save their lives.”
The incident has the potential to further inflame tensions between Israel and Washington. Some US officials have grown frustrated with Netanyahu’s stance in recent weeks, complaining that the Israeli leader, under pressure from right-wing members of his governing coalition, has sought to improve the terms for Israel after President Joe Biden publicly laid out a cease-fire framework in May.
Hoping to shatter the impasse, the United States, Qatar and Egypt, which have all played a role in mediating talks, issued a joint statement this week urging both sides to return to the negotiating table on August 15.
“This is an indication that the Israeli government seeks to thwart and frustrate [cease-fire] efforts.”
Jordan Foreign Ministry